Opening Reception: Julia Betts, Christa Ebert, and Literary Trio Matthew Dettmer, Michelle Duke, Kristen Tetzmann

Prolific Artist Julia Betts Overflows in The Dams Are Broken

Inspired by the simple act of watching her niece color, Julia Betts’s installation The Dams are Broken examines themes of confinement and liberation—and navigating the complex moments of vulnerability when boundaries are ruptured. Through this installation, Betts invites viewers to reflect on the fragile negotiation of bodily, emotional, and spatial boundaries.

With community participation central to Betts’s process, Akron residents were invited to document the intimate landscapes of their home environments by submitting photographs that captured cherished objects and personal spaces. These selected objects, highlighted through each participant’s lens, became integral materials within Julia’s installation—positioned not merely as artifacts, but as expressive anchors of the collective narrative. Through this collaborative and innovative process, Betts creates vibrant, abstract paintings by manipulating watery acrylics on saran wrap, breaking black rubber paste outlines, and mounting the resulting works onto plywood cutouts.

“With each…